i2CAT coordinates the European project ImAc to explore how accessibility services can be integrated with immersive media

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On October 26th and 27th, the i2CAT Foundation hosted the kick-off meeting of ImAc (Immersive Accessibility GA 761974), a project financed by the European Commission under H2020.

The consortium’s formation reflects the leadership of Catalonia in the audiovisual sector. ImAc is coordinated by Sergi Fernandez, director of the Media Internet Area at i2CAT, and it includes the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, and Anglatècnic S.L. The rest of the partners are University of Salford; Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (Rbb); Institut für Rundfunktechnik Gmbh (IRT); Motion Spell and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

ImAc will last for 30 months and it will explore and develop accessibility services for immersive media. Part of the process will be to research new deployment methods for these services (Subtitles, Audio Description, Audio Subtitling, Sign Language) in immersive environments, and to study the coding and transmission in both broadcast and through IP, using the EU standard HbbTV. The project will follow a user-centred methodology and organise TV tests and pilots in Germany (Rbb), Catalunya (TV3) and the UK (RNIB).

The expertise of i2CAT’s Media Internet Area was crucial to enter the immersive media technologies field in 2016 with the coordination of ImmersiaTV, an H2020 project that aims at creating new forms of digital storytelling and broadcast production to deliver an all-encompassing experience with omnidirectional video at the centre. ImmersiaTV has developed 360 synchronization in different screens, which can help the blending of accessibility services into immersive media.

“This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 761974”.